


Blitzkrieg Bop

by earthkidsareweird



Series: Wonder Woman With Stranger Things Kids [2]
Category: Doctor Sleep - Stephen King, Stranger Things (TV 2016), The Shining - Stephen King, Wonder Woman (Movies - Jenkins), Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Stranger Things Fusion, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst and Feels, BAMF Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Billy Hargrove Being an Asshole, Bisexual Eleven | Jane Hopper, Eleven | Jane Hopper Loves Maxine "Max" Mayfield, F/F, Gay Will Byers, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Grumpy Jim "Chief" Hopper, Mutual Pining, One-Sided Will Byers/Mike Wheeler, Parental Diana (Wonder Woman), Protective Diana (Wonder Woman), Protective Eleven | Jane Hopper, Sad Eleven | Jane Hopper, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 12,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24136849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthkidsareweird/pseuds/earthkidsareweird
Summary: Eleven and Max are no longer in Hawkins.After she almost accidentally killed Mike Wheeler, she's fled town hoping Wonder Woman can help her better understand her abilities, but before she could leave, Max refuses to let her go alone. Now the two are joined by Will Byers who learns he has the shining and is looking for answers and some kid named Danny Torrance who seems to have them.Everything seems like it'll be fine, but there's a group of people out to kill them.
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Maxine "Max" Mayfield
Series: Wonder Woman With Stranger Things Kids [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1733035
Comments: 16
Kudos: 8





	1. One (Danny Torrance)

# One

**Danny Torrance**

Danny Torrance has a lot of secrets for an eight-year-old. His biggest secret is that he sees dead people. His second lesser secret is that he can capture the worst of those ghosts thanks to a small box he hid once inside his brain. The third secret is that he has a new best friend, one who isn’t a ghost and one who he hasn’t met in person. His new friend’s name is Will Byers, but the problem with friends like that is, they’re never around when you need them.

“Danny?” His mom holds onto a shopping cart, she’s a few feet away from where he stands. He didn’t even realize she moved ahead of him or that he zoned out enough to almost lose her. “You ok?”

Wendy Torrance looks about as close to normal as she can be since the _incident_. She’s back in her plaid blue dress over red tights and a red shirt, she looks ready to march her way through Oz. Her black hair has grown so long since they left the Overlook. He smiles at his mom. A bin of bright oranges sits in front of him, it’s what got him to stop at first. Danny plucks one from the bin and holds it up to her.

“Sure, just go get one of those bags,” replies Wendy, she points at a little bag dispenser for produce. Danny reaches for it. “Just one bag.” Danny smirks at her and she holds up a finger. He listens to her and struggles to pull one free from the dispenser and drops the orange into the bag before he brings it over to the cart. “Since when did you like oranges?”

“Florida,” replies Danny.

Wendy releases a long sigh and starts to push the cart along. “How about we pick up some cookies?”

“Ice cream,” replies Danny. “Mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

“Danny, we can’t get ice cream, it’ll all melt in the car. We don’t have a freezer. Pick another snack like cookies instead.”

“But what if we get a small ice cream?” This time Danny makes sure he walks beside Wendy. “I’ll eat it all at one time. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” Wendy chuckles, she ends up heading toward the freezer section. “Fine, you win. But make it chocolate caramel because I don’t like mint.”

“Get your own,” retorts Danny.

“Danny!” Wendy tries not to laugh, but she ends up actually smiling at him. Her smile is so soft and kind. Danny misses it almost every day. She didn’t smile a lot when his dad was around and she smiled a lot less now that his dad is gone. 

Of course he can’t say no to her now, but he still pretends he’s all annoyed with an eye roll and some huffing and puffing as he leaves the cart opening one of the freezer doors. All the shelves are so frosted, it’s thick and white, so much like snow. Danny can’t make out any of the flavors because it’s as if each carton is buried deep in the snow, the sort that traps you and confines you and won’t let you leave. His hand reaches out going to grab on but doesn’t. Instead, he lets the door swing shut ready to lie to his mom about it not having any of the right flavors. But she says nothing behind him. Maybe she too is lost with him in the layers of snow.

Danny goes to face her, but can’t. The chill encases all his joints, he’s stuck there staring at the glass of the freezer door unable to see his reflection because somebody else stares back at him. It’s the woman in a hat. She leans forward, wherever she is in the world, she stands in a bathroom looking into a mirror. Her light blue eyes are so sharp and pierce straight into Danny’s heart. Even her cheekbones look like they’ll cut diamonds.

“There you are,” the woman whispers, her voice is a close growl. She’s killed and she’ll kill again. She eats children. Danny feels such danger emanating from her. “But. . .” The woman moves a bit, she looks past Danny and even stands up on her toes even though she’s so tall already. “But where in the world are you, Daniel Anthony Torrance?” It’s obvious Danny can’t hide his surprise. “I know who you are but that won’t help me know where you are unless. . .”

The correct answer: Dumfries, Virginia. It’s impossible to forget because as they were driving up through the states towards Maine, Wendy wanted to stop for the night. Danny insisted on Dumfries because it sounded so close to _Dumb Fries_. Every time he called it _Dumb Fries_ though, Wendy told him to stop but always said it with a laugh.

Danny glances back at Wendy, she stands there gazing off at nothing. Her eyes look glazed over and she looks so frail, but if somebody thinks they’d win a fight against her, they’d lose. She’s fought greater monsters than those of Dumfries or anywhere along the way on I-95.

“South of the Border.” The words fall right out of Danny’s mouth with memories of a tall fake man standing with a sign saying it and a sombrero hat. The entire time Danny kept asking Wendy to stop. They drove past so many billboards telling them to stop then so many more telling them to turn around after she didn’t stop. Danny hopes he can be a good actor by feigning shock like he never meant to say those words. “It’s in. . .Georgia.”

“Liar.” Again with a bitter smile. “I can tell.”

Danny squints at her and starts to screech as loud as he can manage and he slaps the glass once with his palm. It shatters on impact releasing all the snow from the inside. Ice creeps toward him and Wendy. He falls backward into the shards and he thinks he hears himself screaming but instead, it’s Wendy and maybe another person or two who stand by him in the supermarket.

“DANNY!” Wendy screams losing her hold on the cart. Somebody who works there gawks at Danny lying in a sea of broken glass. “DANNY? DANNY?!” She drops down to touch him but the grocery store worker catches her before she lands on all the glass. “Call an ambulance!” 

It’s the last words Danny hears, he’s there shaking, it’s so cold. He’s frozen back in time but manages to scream so loud in his head, he’s sure more than one person can hear it. The woman in the hat probably can, but it’s not her he wants. It’s instead his new best friend, Will Byers, who shines so bright, he’ll hear him wherever in the world he stands.


	2. Two (Eleven)

# Two

**Eleven**

They’re close to Washington DC, almost close enough to see it. It’s El’s turn to sit up front and she says nothing as she looks out the wind expecting to see some giant building or palace where the president lives. A few times everybody else discussed it, but El had nothing to offer the conversation. It’s not like she had a regular education like Max or Will. 

Wonder Woman stopped to fill up the car in some place called Potomac, Maryland. Driving up, the whole time El kept thinking it was just a river. Turns out Potomac is both a river and some town. She looks out the window to watch Wonder Woman filling up the tank. Will is coming back to them while he’s peeling open a candy bar.

Max is nowhere to be seen but at least Will comes up to her side of the car. He knocks on the window and El rolls it down. “What?” she asks him.

“You should stretch your legs,” replies Will.

“I can’t.” El shakes her head.

Will reaches through the window handing her some money. “From Diana.”

“Thanks.” El takes it and stares at the money before deciding to leave. She goes into the little gas station shop, it’s not much of one. Just a register, some food, cigarettes to choose from, bathrooms are out back, and the phone booth, too. There’s sodas to choose from and some other snacks. More important, there’s no Max insight.

So instead, El walks around to the back finding Max out there, she’s sitting on the curb staring up at the phone booth. El joins her on the curb. Max smiles. “What are you doing out here?”

“Stretching legs, my legs.”

“I hear that’s advised,” replies Max.

It’s pretty humid out, some of Max’s hair is sticking to her face. She never pulls it out of her face, instead, let’s it spring free like a lion’s mane. El reaches out, about to brush some hair from her face but stops herself because maybe that’d be pretty weird. Although it’s strange enough she’s sitting there almost touching Max’s face so she sits on her hands.

“Did you call?” El asks.

Max shakes her head. She lies a few coins out on El’s knee, trying to balance them there. “No.”

“Why?”

Max sort of smirks. “I don’t know.” She attempts to add a laugh to the conversation. “It’s just-It’s just different from you and Hopper for me.” The laughter stops, she looks straight at El. “But what about you?”

El touches a quarter Max put on her knee. She ends up taking them all going towards the phone booth and climbs inside. Maybe she should’ve asked more questions of Max. Out there, Max stays on the curb, her hair sticking to her face. She’s wearing some t-shirt they picked up at a souvenir shop along the way because only her and Will brought bags of clothes. Not Max. No note, no nothing was left behind when she decided to disappear into the night.

El drops a few coins in and listens to it hum then, “El? El? Is that you?”

But she stands there holding onto the phone without answering. Instead, she continues to look out at Max who watches her.

“El, if that’s you, you don’t have to say anything. It's ok, really. Just please let me know you’re at least ok in some sort of way.” Hopper pauses on the other end of the line. He waits for an answer that El can’t seem to find. So he adds, “Mike woke up. He'll be ok.”

“I’m. . .sorry. . .” El manages to whisper.

“Where are you?”

El looks at Max who hasn’t said a word to her family and she has no idea about Will. “No.”

“No? That’s-That’s not an answer.”

“Wonder Woman,” El then replies.

“Wonder Woman? What’s that. . .You’re with Wonder Woman?” There’s something indistinct about Hopper’s voice. Some edge to it but something-something else, too.

“Yes.”

“Good.” 

Chances are, that’s going to be the whole conversation between the two of them.

“So. . .you are safe then?”

El nods at first, not that Hopper can hear this so she adds, “Yes.”

“Good.”

There is a good amount of silence between them and the phone operator goes off demanding more money, money that El doesn’t have. She gives Max a look who hasn’t really moved since she picked up the phone. Time is going to run out.

“Will and Max are with you, aren’t they?”

El doesn’t answer, but she doesn’t need to.

“I’m glad.”

“Don’t tell.”

“I won’t.”

El’s grip tightens on the phone. She looks back at Max again who pops up off the curb, she’s yelling to Wonder Woman and Will. Letting them know: _Another minute_.

Hopper at least breaks the silence, “Hey Eleven. Just promise me. . .”

It cuts him off asking for more money. El continues to stand in the same spot while she squeezes the phone. Max comes up to the door and lightly taps on it and El hangs up before coming outside. “Do you want anything from the store?” Max asks and looks at the phone behind her. “You didn’t have to hang up.”

“It. . .ended,” replies El.

Max nods. “Go sit in the car. Do you want anything?” El looks over her shoulder at the store. “And please, please don’t say Eggos because no.”

This gets a smile from El. “Mountain Dew.”

“Ew.” Max leaves her there and goes into the little gas station stop.

El makes her way back to the car finding Will sitting up front in the passenger seat and Wonder Woman back in the driver seat. The window’s still open and Will looks out. “You took too long so I called shotgun.”

El squints at Will. With the wave of her hand, she can get him to move, but before she can accomplish this Wonder Woman leans across him and jabs a finger at the air while looking at her. “No! NO! You do not do that.”

“But. . .” El starts to say.

“I said no! You sit in the back now.” Wonder Woman sits all the way in her seat again but gives Will a look. “You are trouble.”

“I’m not, not really,” Will makes an attempt to insist.

“Do not lie to me, I know. I see you.” Wonder Woman starts the car. She looks back at El who sits in the back and how there’s two empty seats there. “Where did the redhead one go?”

“Her name is Max,” Will comments.

“Mad Max,” El corrects.

“Well, where is she?”

El points out the window seeing Max make her way from the store carrying a little plastic bag with her. She opens the door forcing El to move right on other to the other side of the car and buckle up there. Wonder Woman starts to drive, pulling away from the stop as Max opens up the bag, she pulls out a bag of chips and then hands El her Mountain Dew.

“We are close to Washington DC, but first, I will need to stop by where I work.” Wonder Woman manages to smile at each of them. “And remember, I am Diana.”

“Where do you work?” Will asks.

“The Hirshhorn Museum.”

The two continue to chat, but El doesn’t hear what else is said and she has no idea what a _Hirshhorn_ even is. Max pulls out a small, porcelain thing, it’s shaped like a small cup that can fit on a finger. There’s a big red crab on it and it says Maryland in bold letters. Max places it on the palm of El’s hand prompting El to look up, her expression full of a lot of confusion.

“What is it?” El doesn’t even look at the thing.

“A kiss.”

El gawks at Max who snorts as she breaks into laughter.

“No, I’m kidding. It’s a thimble, but like you know _Peter Pan_?”

“Nooo. . .” whispers El as she shakes her head. “I don’t know what that is.”

“Nevermind. It’s pretty stupid anyway. I don’t know why I said that.” Instead of continuing the conversation, Max leans forward putting her chin on the back of Will’s seat as she looks over at Wonder Woman as she drives. “Can we listen to some music?”

Will doesn’t even wait for permission, instead, he turns up the volume. Some old bop, _Wooly Bully_ , plays. He sneers, so does Max. They laugh. El though leans back in her seat tucking the thimble into her pocket so she can have a free hand to open up her soda and steal a chip from Max. Will flips through some stations, soon they are on the highway again heading towards Washington DC. He stops when he finds a perfect song. Will turns and looks back at Max and El grinning. _Once in a Lifetime_ by Talking Heads plays for them, Will keeps turning it up as Wonder Woman makes way for the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

Already El has her face pressed to the window washing trees swish past them. Trees are a regular thing to see but this all felt so different. The car heads toward the biggest bridge she’s seen in a long time as they cross the murky waters of the Potomac heading towards a sign with a big heart on it welcoming them to Virginia. She says nothing to anybody in the car letting the music play loud, Max keeps her thoughts to herself and her gift waits in her pocket. El picks at it as she keeps her eyes open wide ready to take in the sights of this alleged new adventure they’re about to start.


	3. Three (Hopper)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hopper lies.

# Three

**Hopper**

It’s reaching a point where kids go missing a whole lot in Hawkins, Indiana. The Hargroves haven't left since the night before and when Hopper walks in, he struts right past them even though the father starts yelling at him. Each word goes ignored as he makes his way into his office. He drops into his seat without coffee, doesn’t matter because Florence creeps in with a mug.

“What can you tell me about Wonder Woman?” he asks as Florence sits the mug down on his desk.

Florence slowly stands up. She looks over her shoulder, not that there’s anybody behind her to really look at. The other two officers, Callahan and Powell, are organizing a search party for the three missing kids. “That doesn’t seem important right now?”

“Trust me,” Hopper replies. He takes a sip of what turns out to be real cold coffee, he grimaces and puts it down. “It is, so what do you know about Wonder Woman.”

“Mrs. Byers has. . .”

“Could you please answer the question?” retorts Hopper. Nobody needs to know Joyce did this or that.

“I don’t know? I think I see a lot of news about her in DC. What does this have. . .”

“Perfect. Tell Callahan to take the lead on this. Too close to the case.” He hands the coffee back to her. “I’ll be leaving to talk to Mrs. Byers in twenty minutes, I won’t need anything else. Thanks.”

Florence backs away from him returning to the other two while holding onto the cold coffee. This leaves Hopper at his desk. He dials a number and holds waiting for Joyce to pick up as soon as she does, he comments, “I’ve got a lead.”

“A lead? I’ll be there in thirty.”

“No, no, just, stay there. I’ll come by later if it’s any good.”

Before Joyce gets to say anything else, Hopper hangs up leaning back in his seat. DC is far but he could probably make it there in a day especially if he didn’t make too many stops. The problem is making it to DC than what? El didn’t say a whole lot about what they had planned when she called. Of course, she didn’t say a lot anyway. The last time she left, she was fine, she made it back just fine. She’ll come back again just fine after she finds whatever it is she needs to find. This can’t be the same though. There’s the two she left with and the circumstance and all when she already could leave the house.

Hopper snatches up his keys and makes his way to the exit. “I’ll be back in an hour,” he shouts for everybody even though it’s a lie. DC isn’t that big of a place, a hell of a lot bigger than Hawkins but chances are three kids following Wonder Woman around can’t be too challenging to follow up on. 

Just like when he arrived, Hopper struts right past the Hargrove family again. The father is mad, it looks like Max’s brother is looking annoyed and her mother is present. Even though El spends a lot of time with their kid, he knows little about any of them. He looks at them and just says, “Um. . .sorry. . .we’ll get Max back soon.” It’s true, he hopes. He knows.

Hopper leaves. He throws the doors open and gets into his car and it’s time to make his way to DC. He sits there reminding himself, he kept one important promise. Didn’t tell Joyce or Max’s family their whereabouts. The one promise he’ll break is following through with his job. It’s not like any of them are going to find the three missing kids out there. Hopper starts to back out of his parking spot, he stalls as the brother makes his way out of the station to his own car. The entire time the brother is watching him. Not that it’s weird, it can’t be weird. Nobody else is out there but Hopper. 

Still, he stalls a bit too long even though the brother is in his own car and ready to leave. Hopper needs to pull out first anyhow so he makes his move. First, he’ll stop and get some gas and maybe something for the road and a map nobody will notice is missing. Hopper fixes his mirror, sighing. The brother pulls up right behind him in the loud car of his. 

Hopper makes his way to leave Hawkins. There’s not a lot of roads in Hawkins, some weird thought crosses Hopper’s mind as he sees the same car behind him. It’s all in his head. Some people showed up and caused a lot of damage and chances are El nor the other two consider this danger when they went galavanting off into the world with Wonder Woman.


	4. Four (Max)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max talks El into sneaking off once they reach Washington DC. It could've been fun in all if they didn't run into 001.

# Four

**Max**

It’ll be easy to mark _not into art_ off her interests list because every moment at the Hirshhorn Museum has been the worst moment. Diana’s busy working but Will’s stepping on her ankles, pestering her with questions while Max keeps to herself in the gift shop. El isn’t too far off but for some time now El has been in an undefinable mood. She’s staring at a wall of books, sometimes touching one then touching another without ever bothering to open any of them up to read. So Max cuts across and looks at her.

“What?” asks El.

“We should just leave,” she replies. “I don’t get any of this. . .” She pauses trying to think up some of the weird stuff they saw in the other room. “Pants and Woven Wire.” The art Diana showed them was just fabric cut into the shape of pants hanging on a literal wire. 

“What?” El looks around as if she said something terrible. “No, we can’t go.”

“Or yes, we can! Think about it, you and Will do whatever it is you do to make sure we’re back here before Diana notices we’re gone.”

El shakes her head. “No.”

“But _Eleven_ , hear me out, there is a whole museum next to us full of airplanes.”

This gets El’s attention but in such a weird way that Max isn’t too sure El knows what an airplane is, in the first place. All Max gets in response is a “Huh?”

Max tugs at her hand. “C’mon, let’s go. It’ll be fine. What’s Diana going to do? Ground us?” El lets her lead the way out of the gift shop. They stand on an escalator going up to the first floor to leave this place behind. Nobody says anything about their exit. Max releases El’s hand to walk a little faster as they start walking along a sidewalk. “There’s even missiles, next door.” 

It’s all humid outside. If they stay out there any longer, they’ll melt into the sidewalk. There’s an occasional child walking around chomping down on some ice cream. El and Max dart across the street. Out on the National Mall, there’s some sort of stage set up with people playing music while watching as they cheer on about something. It’s hard to tell if it’s a protest or concert or celebration or what. They’re all right before the capitol building heading towards the National Air and Space Museum. 

There’s a short line outside the museum that they get stuck in and melt in while waiting as the people ahead of them go through a security check one at a time. El keeps an eye on those people outside. The music’s over and it captures Max’s attention again. For the first time, their presence makes sense as the people are shouting about some Maxwell Lord visiting the museum.

“Empty your pockets and step forward,” a security guard cuts into the moment.

Max checks her pockets, there’s nothing in them and she passes through. El pulls out a thimble about to put it in a little bin to go through security but the guard let’s her keep it. Next, she holds out a key, she puts that in the bin and passes through security already lost in through as she stares up at airplanes dangling above their heads. Glass walls let’s sunlight through.

The guard hands her the key back. She takes it and walks forward to stand beside Max. The two are still in the way as they look up. There’s a bright orange plane stuck in one corner with a star painted on its wings then a silver one that simply says “Spirit of St. Louis” with what appears to be flags painted underneath. A silver orb that looks more like trash is up there, too. It has three spikes shooting out of either its front or back end. All of it builds towards a lunar module waiting on the floor, it’s silver and a shiny orange waiting around on earth rather than the moon.

Both Max and El look at each other. “I told you it was better,” Max laughs and El smiles and nods. “It’s like the newest museum here, I think or close to it.”

“Wow,” whispers El and she looks up again. “But what do we do now?”

“Look at planes,” replies Max, signaling to the ones above them and an escalator leading to a whole other level.

“Oh. . .great. . .” replies El as she takes another look. “But what if. . .I don’t want to?”

Max shrugs. “Well, we could do something else. I guess we can look at some other gift shops or sit outside, get some ice cream.”

This gets El to smile.

“Cool.” Max looks at another exit across from them. She points it out and shrugs so El shrugs back. They start to make their way across the museum when El tripes over her own toes. Max goes to grab her, but El winds her arms around, catching her balance, she stops looking up the above level. Not that they can’t quite make out what’s visible from where they stand. “What is it?”

El is looking up at some guy who is all dressed up in a light gray suit with a striped shirt underneath and some colorful tie. His hair is pushed back from his face. It even stays as he leans over the railing up top as he watches the two of them. Max studies El’s expression in an attempt to determine what may be going on in her mind. Whoever is watching them makes his way towards one of the two escalators. He heads down with some people following him, some of his own security guards.

“Is that the guy. . .” Max starts to ask unsure how to finish the question because her assumption is that this is the guy El sometimes calls papa from a past she knows little about. El doesn’t even acknowledge her or the question as the man makes his way over to them. He stops and smiles at them. “Oh. Hey.”

The man looks at El. “Do I know you?”

El shakes her head.

“Strange, I could’ve sworn we met before.” 

The man smiles the whole time, the sleazy businessman sort. Something her stepdad or Billy might grumble about. He looks as if he is about to back away and Max figures it’s best to push El right on out like they planned. This or stick around to make sure the museum’s security can keep any one of them in sight with this guy walking around.

_Remember ice cream_ is all Max is about to say, she comes so close when instead of leaving them alone the man catches El’s hand. There’s not even anything aggressive about it. He reaches out, touching her hand and hangs onto her. He slides the bracelet El’s always wearing up her arm revealing her 011 tattoo. There’s no words Max can think up. It doesn’t help El’s just standing around all quiet. This strange man is staring at her before he shimmies his sleeve up a bit. When it doesn’t go up anymore, he let’s go of El who stays stuck in the same spot gawking at him. The man unbuttons his sleeve revealing a tattoo of his own on his arm, 001. They’re an unbalanced pair.

“Who do you think you are?” Max snaps. She grabs onto El in an attempt to pull her away.

But El is about as stuck as anybody can be. She’s teetering in a new spot. If Max never moved her, she’d be standing right there still. Max is the one to pull her bracelet back down in an attempt to hide her tattoo, not that this sleazy smiling businessman does anything about his 001.

“I know I am Maxwell Lord and I think I’m about to have a serious conversation with your friend here,” is his response. He glances at Max. “You’re welcome to join us, kid, if you keep quiet.”

El touches her arm as she stares at this Maxwell Lord. “I’m. . .”

“Her name is Eleanor. . .Eleanor Miller,” Max cuts in even though El shoots her a dirty look. She shrugs in response as if to say what but says nothing more. “And I’m. . .George. . .George Rockatansky and together, we’re leaving.”

Maxwell Lord takes a business card from his pocket handing it to El. “Pleasure, give me a call sometime Miss Miller.” Still all sleaze he makes his way towards a security desk near the other exit. He leans into the counter talking to whoever is there working.

“On second thought, we should head back to Diana,” Max suggests.

El stares at the card from the man before she tucks it into her pocket. All she says is “Yeah.”

Max smiles and points at the doors they entered. “Right this way Miss Elanor Miller.”

“You lied.” There’s no shared smile, El frowns and El also walks away as she keeps looking over her shoulder after Maxwell Lord. 

Outside they spot the stage and some people with posters up and somebody shouting about their hate for the guy. How could the Smithsonian support such a person? The two stare at this not noticing the fact Diana and Will are waiting for them. When they do, Diana is standing there with her arms folded across her chest while she taps her foot and shakes her head.

“What do you two think you are doing over here?” Diana asks, her voice is curt, to the point.

“Looking at airplanes,” replies Max.

Diana sucks in a lot of air and she points at them only to stop. “. . .Right. . .we go back to the car now.” Rather than reprimand, she takes the lead heading to where she parked a few blocks away from the Hirshhorn. Will makes no comment. Just a tiny smirk before following her.

Of course, El is about to be the first to follow but Max catches her hand. El looks at her. “Don’t call him, I don’t trust him.”

El stares at her. “He’s my brother.”

“Shit, El, he’s old enough to be your dad,” retorts Max. “Don’t just go around trusting people.”

“You have. . .a whole family,” starts El before she pauses for a while and pulls herself free from Max. “It’s different. . .for you.” 

_But not really. . ._ Just a few more words Max keeps to herself as she watches El follow Diana. There’s the people still behind them protesting this Maxwell Lord. Max is stuck on the steps outside the Air and Space Museum without much else to say in the moment. She dropped all those things to follow and follow again she does. Max huffs and puffs while she makes her way after the others feeling unsure what to make of this 001, and if she should be the one to break the news to Diana or even reach out to Hopper letting him know about trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some liberties about crossing over DC characters and Stranger Things? Also like no lie, I'm just so excited about Wonder Woman 84.


	5. Five (Diana)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diana doesn't know how to be a parent.

# Five

**Diana**

The children were gone and now the children are no longer gone. Diana is at a loss of words as she swears to herself while thanking her mother for never dropping dead for half the mischief she pulled back in her day. Both Eleven and Maxine make their way back towards the Hirshhorn. Something appears to be wrong with Maxine or she makes her best assumption something is wrong with Maxine. The girl is simply all attitude, her muscles are all taut and it looks as if she’s about to get stuck in an eye roll loop. Then Eleven is not all wound up but looks ready to melt into the ground to leave them behind for some somber back thought.

_Oh, where in the city did they go? Did somebody hurt them? Did they get in a fight?_ IT’s not even like she has the faintest idea on how to mediate a fight with words. She could with fists and swords, which seems inappropriate unless she hands the two training swords. It didn’t seem like a fair fight, Eleven could move objects with her mind and maybe more beyond that. Maybe Maxine should have two swords, but this is also a terrible idea seeing how it takes so much training to use dual weapons.

“Where did you go?” Diana snaps at them doing her best attempt at using a steely mother voice. “You should not have left me, what if you got lost? Or what if somebody kidnapped you? I heard children go missing all the time.”

William and Eleven exchange an uncomfortable look making Diana regret what she said there. What if they had a friend who was kidnapped in the past or just disappeared into thin air?

Diana sighs real loud because she still doesn’t know what to do although she makes a mental note: **Maxine needs battle practice**. It’ll help her release whatever anger is wound up inside all of her body.

“Do not leave me again. . .unless you ask for permission or there is an emergency or a war,” Diana informs them. She points at Eleven then Maxine but also William. “You count in that, you do not leave either except for the reason I listed. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you. . .” _I do not have their emergency contacts_. But that she could take care of later. “Ok, we should leave now.”

“Can’t we walk around a bit?” Maxine retorts. “I’ve never even been to DC.”

Diana looks around the Mall. There’s tourists milling about in all directions. She points over at the National Gallery of Art across from there. “We can visit the art museum. They host a portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci.”

“Ok but we were just at an art museum.” Maxine points at the building behind them as if nobody would get the reference and yet Diana still looks behind her. “Isn’t there one with dinosaurs in it?”

Diana snaps her attention back at Maxine so close to not knowing what to say. “Do you want to see dinosaurs?”

Maxine ends up shaking her head, which meant there was no point for her to bring dinosaurs up.

Well, the girls are going to be unlike any other girl on Themyscira. Maybe she should bring them there and leave them there to learn, but then she’d have to figure out what to do with William. Diana snaps her attention back to him. He looks all confused pointing at himself.

“Let us go to my home and then we can go eat, I know a restaurant with a book store.” Diana leads them away from the National Mall doing her best character study of each child or young adult. She’d need to see what Americans say these days about age ranges.

William follows her without hesitation. He’s smiling and taking in the last sight of the Hirschhorn. She should’ve purchased him something, it’s what she has seen other adults do whenever they visit the gift shop. Her apartment hosts enough books to interest him for hours. There’s no way she can guess at how to teach or mentor him in battle, but maybe he is close to magic.

Maxine gives Eleven an undefinable look, she’s still too tense. A salt bath will be good for her body, it will help her come down and relax after she comes up with some sort of training activity for Maxine. Maybe the girl would do well to use a battleaxe. There’s an anger, a fiery temper about her and a weapon for hacking might better serve any future approach she forms rather than the patience of archery or another weapon.

Eleven waits the longest as she stares off at the National Air and Space Museum without acknowledging Maxine’s movement or expression. Figures they would visit the museum with all of the airplanes. Diana slows her pace down a bit, neither William nor Maxine seem to notice or care. She’s looking over at the other museum with Eleven until Eleven picks at her bracelet looking at a tattoo on her wrist. Something happened that she’ll need to keep an eye on. She’ll need to keep an eye on how Eleven moves and fights to figure out the best way to train her.

“What are you looking at?” Maxine interrupts her thoughts.

Diana realizes they’re stuck at a crosswalk, it’s time to cross yet she is busy staring at the Air and Space Museum. “Just lost in thought. We should go especially if we want to make dinner and also I believe we should purchase some more clothes for you.” Even though the light is about to change, Diana chooses to force them across the road to get out of there. Something about the way Eleven pics at her arm and keeps looking back doesn’t sit well with her, but it is a conversation they can reach later in the day. First, she wants a hot shower and to brush her teeth with her favorite toothbrush.


	6. Six (Danny Torrance)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will and Danny chat.

# Six

**Danny Torrance**

_WILL!_

Danny snaps his eyes open as the world begins to tilt, he’s sitting cross-legged on the floor of the hotel room while Wendy’s in the shower. Before him stumbles a very confused and pale Will Byers. 

When Will makes eye contact with Danny, he starts talking right away. “I knew you’d make it.” He leaps up smiling at Will even though there’s a chance Will might barf. “We stopped right outside DC in some place called Seven Corners.”

Will just nods.

“I haven’t seen those people in a bit, the bad ones. Have you?”

“No,” Will replies.

“So tomorrow I am going to talk my mom into going into the city because I’m sure she’ll want us to see all those museums, I did some research on my own, too, even though I don’t know how to read too well because my dad started to teach me but then he went crazy and tried to murder us and died and. . .”

Will gawks at him. “Sorry, what was that last part?”

“Oh, my dad. . .” Danny continues to talk a mile a minute. “He tried to kill us, ghosts aren’t very nice and I think they made him do it but also I don’t think he was a good person because one time he broke my arm and. . .”

Again, Will interrupts, “Sorry. I. . .didn’t have a very nice dad either.” And Danny stops chatting away to kind of smile at him. “We left him though so I guess things got better.

“You guess? They did or didn’t.”

Will offers a somber shrug. “It’s-It’s complicated but I have a cool brother and mom and I have some cool friends, too, but also then I had some other friends.” Right as Danny opens his mouth to start speaking up a whole lot Will cuts him off. “So I have to go to dinner, we talk tomorrow?”

Already Danny is nodding in agreement. Such good timing, too, because the water is off in the bathroom and his mom is calling out to him, _Are you talking to somebody, Danny?_ He holds up a finger then looks at the door yelling, _Just Tony!_ Then Danny is back in conversation with Will who looks so sad even when he smiles. Once again the world turns, but Danny bolts forward just a bit almost touching Will’s hand as he’s about to leave. Real fast Danny whispers, “Don’t you forget about me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is short but I'm hoping to get back to writing more soon because I lost some inspiration.


	7. Seven (Eleven)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El has a moment.

# Seven

**Eleven**

It’s happening again only this time, but this time she’s awake and not in danger. El feels some insect crawl across her left ankle but she looks down not seeing any sort of critter but something is there, crawling. More crawl across both her ankles. Max walks ahead busy talking to Diana who just smiles and nods. It doesn’t look as if she’s listening while Will is off to another side of the store, he’s looking at books. Diana is handing books to Max, still smiling and nodding while Max takes them, sometimes she hands them back after flipping through them and other times she adds them to a mini stack she’s creating.

But El’s stuck. She considers shouting to Max and comes so close to whispering, _Max_ , but those wasps scurry up her legs, their spindly bronze legs are out of sight but she can feel them prickling all over her again. Even with her eyes wide open taking in the little bookshop and cafe, metal scrapes across the ground.

Rather than risking some sort of indoor explosion, El whips around without anybody but strangers noticing her dart outside. It feels as if the wasps are underneath her skin, crawling along her muscles, trying to get to her bones, little translucent wings scraping against the underside of her scream. As soon as she bursts outside it’s no longer DC that faces her, but instead Hawkins. El’s fingernails dig deep into her palms, gouging her skin unable to release any of the wasps winding their way throughout her.

 _Focus_! She’s not in Hawkins! She’s in DC. She is standing outside a bookstore and cafe called Kramer’s and she ran away from home to learn from Wonder Woman. There’s nobody around here where she stands in Hawkins, but this has to be the past because she’s at the factory, the factory where Mike got hurt. Where she hurt Mike because-because she’s dangerous. The pebbles at her feet tremble, they buzz with the wasps underneath her skin and she closes her eyes with her nails digging deeper into her palms. _Focus_! None of this is real! She’s not in Hawkins! She’s in DC.

Except all those wasps tremble inside of her as anger pops in her head. Rocks and pebbles lifting off the ground around her as pebbles scrap across the ground. Even without anybody there she can hear people screaming in some sort of terror as she rips parts of the abandoned factory to pieces.

“ELEANOR!”

El’s eyes snap open half expecting to see Mike standing a few feet from her, calling out to her but she hurt him, she hurt him, she really did hurt him. 

All of a sudden the ground strikes El, knocking the breath from her. An umbrella soars above her face, it almost scrapes her forehead. She watches it hit the ground beside her as people are ducking. Shards of glass all around her. El sits up realizing it was never Mike who shouted to her. Mike’s not there. Mike’s dying. It’s not even Max. Instead, El sits there wrinkling her nose as she attempts to register the fact that the man from the airplane building is there. He yelled _ELEANOR_ never Eleven and knocked her over. Rather than look at him too long, she looks over at the tables to see they’re all a mess.

“Miss Miller?”

 _What even was his name again?_ El can’t remember but he helps her stand up.

He answers with a big smile, _Maxwell Lord_. El gawks at him all over again, her whole world shook. She watches him fix his one shirt sleeve, it got all messed up when he pushed her out of the way. Maxwell is careful to cover up his tattoo, 001. But El tries to ignore this. She can’t though. All those furious wasps itching across her muscles lift their wings and fly off. Leaving her behind, unguarded as she stares at Maxwell hoping her thoughts are about as empty as possible.

From inside the bookshop, she can hear Diana calling for her, understanding her better than some. _Stay where you are, Eleven, we are on our way._

“I’ll see you around, Elanor,” Maxwell says still fixing his sleeve over his tattoo.

 _Wait!_ El screams it so loud, Maxwell squints a bit, pain flutters across his expression. Yet he still breaks away in some bad attempt to blend in with the crowd. Nobody quite looks like him in his baby blue suit and colorful tie. _I need to talk to you._

But Diana is out there beside her. “Eleven, are you alright?” she says as she observes the disaster that El stands in the middle of still looking after Maxwell Lord. He backs up still ill attempting to fit right in with the rest of the world. Not to mention, everybody’s staring at her like she’s the center of the world as he moves along. “Who were you just speaking with?”

 _Don’t mention anything of me_ , Maxwell continues to slip away.

_Why?_

_It’s complicated, but you knew that._

Complicated is right. El can’t even imagine closing her eyes ‘cause all she’d see is her harming Mike over and over and over again. She’s killed before. Max touches her shoulder, startling her. El jerks away almost stumbling off the curb. She’ll probably kill again. Both her and Max are staring at each other. Max attempts a smile, she’s hanging onto a bag of books while Will is carrying some chunk of a book called _The Making of the English Working Class_. He’s so still and studying her real close in all of this. Diana finishes taking in the scene and focuses on El instead.

“Did you do this?”

“Yes,” El whispers.

Even with realizing Diana is about to touch her, El flinches. Behind them, a tire explodes and the driver loses somewhat control. At least they’re not going fast. Diana is already pushing El in the opposite direction of Maxwell, but she wants to keep looking back to him. 

Without seeing him, she can at least hear him. _We’ll talk again soon, I promise._ Not a chance of seeing Maxwell. Not with all the people in the way and the cops showing up to figure out what in the world just happened. Eleven happened. Stressed out Eleven happened. Except for a split second, El spots Maxwell between a handful of people, he’s about to climb into a car but knows she’s looking at him. He’s getting into the back when he pauses to wave to her. _Can’t leave my sister behind now, can I?_

“What even happened over there?” Max asks. It’s hard to tell if she’s mad or annoyed but there’s some sort of edge to her voice. Something El isn’t in the mood for seeing how she pushed her away from Maxwell earlier. 001. Her brother. But then Max’s edge softens. “Hey? Are you ok?”

“Sad. . .I’m sad,” El replies.

“Because of Mike?”

“Yeah. Mike.” El turns letting Diana steer her away from the scene, she looks forward at all the DC buildings melting into one another, so different from all the empty spaces of Hawkins. “Sorry.”

Diana’s grip on her shoulder tightens a bit. She pauses looking at El as if El just apologized to her and not Max. “There is nothing to be sorry about, these sort of things happen.”

Max chuckles.

“What is it?” Diana asks looking at her.

Max shrugs. “I don’t know.” She holds up the bag. “Thanks for the books.”

El makes an attempt to peer into the bag not that she’d really make much sense of everything on in the inside. “What-What did you get?”

Another Max shrug like she doesn’t know when she picked them out. For some reason, El smiles at this. “Books about the Amazons.”

“Amazons,” whispers El. Women warriors who lived far away from this place. Women like Diana, but none of them were like her. El bits her lower lip turning away again from Max as they keep on heading back towards Diana’s place. Diana didn’t move things with her mind. She didn’t move like El. None of them are like her or her siblings. Not like Kali with all her festering rage and manipulation or Maxwell with whatever he could accomplish.

“We should watch a movie,” Max announces even though it’s more of a statement.

“What movie?”

Max shrugs and Will pipes up, “Whatever is on TV, I guess.

Diana’s grip on El slackens as she starts to turn almost crashing into El, but she manages to move El out of the way as she looks after somebody who is walking past them. “Steve?” she whispers. El looks half expecting to see the on ice cream scoop kid who Dustin is always hanging around, but it’s not that Steve. Some other Steve. El keeps walking with Max and Will, she’s in between the two feeling a weird twitch in her heart because she misses Steve and Dustin and. . .Mike.

“You have a TV right?” Max asks, interrupting some thought Diana appears to be stuck on.

Diana looks back at them looking a little shocked until she returns to normal. “A TV? No.”

“Guess we’re not watching a movie then,” Max mutters.

“I’m tired anyway,” El comments.

They stop outside a building with a little awning and a doorman waiting out there. Diana hands a set of keys to Will. “Remember it is room 530.” Will takes the keys, they dangle there looking ready to plummet from his hand. “I will come back, I have to go see something.”

“Ok?” Will is still close to losing the keys so Max snatches them from him.

“You heard the woman, room 530. She has to go talk to. . .whoever Steve is.”

Max and Will head inside first while El stands out there watching Diana take off. Inside the lobby there’s a little concierge desk and Will looks nervous as he talks to the person there. He’s picking at his pockets and his books as Max leans into the counter asking a bunch of questions. When El comes up to them, the man at the counter starts to pull out some newspapers handing them to Max.

The man points out a series of elevators and Will takes the lead. Meanwhile, Max hangs back holding up the papers she got from the desk. “Check it out.” She chuckles. At the top it says _Weekly World News_ then in giant words **CHRISTIAN GIRL DECIMATES WHOLE TOWN AT PROM GONE WRONG!** There’s a blurry photograph of a girl caught in a smile and frown with blood poured all over her. “This stuff is crazy.”

El is stuck staring at the front page as Max pages through the paper and Will takes a peek. They’re in the elevator together. But El looks up from them. A wasp scurries across her one ankle. It’s starting again. She ends up blurring, “Am I. . .a good person?” Maybe it catches the two off guard because they pause and look up, staring at her. The doors open forcing them all to get off on the fifth floor. “Ok?" 


	8. Eight (Diana)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve Trevor shows up again in Diana's life.

# Eight

**Diana**

There’s something about Maxine that has Diana wondering if she made the right choices earlier in handing her an axe to practice with. It turned out to be more of a struggle and ever since Maxine was stuck in such a sour mood. Originally, she brought Maxine a dress to wear but she didn’t seem too interested in it so she changed it up to a nicer dark green shirt and black dress pants for the gala. It passed enough for them to stay. Eleanor wore a classic little black dress while William wore nice pants, a buttoned-up white shirt and a sweater vest. To be honest, she’d never dressed children up for such an event.

“Who are those three?” a person asks her.

Diana turns and smiles. “My nieces and nephew.”

“Beautiful.”

Diana watches as the three make their way along the food table. Picking at random food, tasting it then deciding if they should keep it or not. A few people sneer at them and some other people casually chuckle. Children don’t often show up at such events and she can’t help but smile.

Somebody touches the back of her shoulder and she starts to turn to see who it is, but she can hardly understand her thoughts and comes close to falling over. Right there stands Steve Trevor and right there stands Steve Trevor catching her before she can hit the ground. Diana gawks at him reaching out and touching his face to find he really is there. Steve is here.

“Steve?!” whispers Diana. “But. . .”

He offers up a smile. “It’s complicated.”

“You are. . .here.”

His hand runs down her shoulder to her hand, he pulls her hand closer to himself placing a watch into the palm of her hand. “I knew you could save tomorrow.”

Diana’s free hand touches her cheek, she shakes her head unable to sort out her thoughts. A few plates crash into the groundbreaking her focus from Steve. It’s Eleanor who looks about as shocked as ever with a huge O face as she looks at the plate. It appears she never touched any of them by the awkward way Maxine and William stand around her as if to block her from people’s sight.

“My children,” Diana comments.

“You have children?” Steve chuckles.

“No, I found them.” Diana points them out.

“Diana. . .” Steve released her hand while staring at her. “You can’t just take children.”

“They followed me.” 

Eleanor, Maxine, and William make their way back towards Diana while she stands there. Steve offers up a short and awkward wave.

“Is it ok if we step outside? Maxine asks.

“Of course, do not go far.” Diana pauses. She looks at Steve not sure how or what to say in such an unimaginable situation. “This is Steve Trevor, an old friend.”

The children don’t really look at him while standing around there but mumble a few hellos before they start to back out of a potential conversation. Diana uses this as a chance to instead turn and face Steve again as he watches the children leave them.

“Eleanor, the one in the dress, she can move objects with her brain. She hurt a boy not too long ago and is full of such guilt.” Diana pauses, none of this is going to make sense to Steve. Yet she adds, “I hope she understands, it will get better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P.S. I know I already slowed down on this but might more so because I have scarlet fever again (I'm a very unlucky person).


	9. Nine (Max)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max tries to talk to El, but El then goes missing.

# Nine

**Max**

Max can’t define what she was even mad about or if she was mad in the first place. But once outside she felt a lot better. She placed her feet on one of many curbs out in the parking lot. The whole time she kept her arms out for better balance while she put one foot in front of another making her way towards El who’s collecting a lot of dirt and dust on her black dress. She stops looking at her and Will but the two are staring off at something else.

“What is it?” Max asks.

“That’s the kid, I think.” Will points at a woman and a child walking over on the sidewalk. The child stopped planting his feet into the ground and snapping his attention right over to Will, and he also pointed.

“That’s scary,” mutters Max.

El comments on nothing.

But Will gets up to walk over to the boy leaving Max on the curb with El who is still pretty quiet. Rather than follow, Max sits next to her. “Hey.”

El looks over at her and doesn’t even smile so Max doesn’t either. “What?”

“Are you ok?”

At first, all she gets is a shrug that El follows up with a “I don’t know.” It’s pretty obvious something is on her mind by the way she’s sitting there scowling about something. All while Will is chatting with this random child on the sidewalk.

“We should go save that weird kid,” Max suggests.

This gets a smile from El.

“No really, what’s wrong? Just tell me.”

Somehow El tries to shrug this off. “It’s. . .complicated.”

“Makes sense.” Max walks with her out to join Will, but along the way there’s some store that catches El’s attention. She walks over to it. One of those television stores with screens up front and they’re playing a talk from that Maxwell Lord guy they all saw earlier. “Look at that, it’s your brother.” Max nudges El like it’s a joke but El’s look suggests there’s nothing funny about this.  
They can somewhat hear him talking and he looks all washed out in saturated colors. “Welcome to the future. Life is good, but it can be better. And why shouldn’t it be? All you need is to want it. Think about finally having everything you always wanted.”

El whispers, “Always wanted.”

Max watches El’s expression still wanting to ask more about what’s going on with her as they watch Maxwell Lord speak. But then again there’s also Will still talking to the random child. Behind her El watches the TV and Maxlord talk. 

“Danny, this is Max,” Will points her out to the strange child. “Max, this is Danny. He’s in danger.”

“In danger?” Max snorts at this only to realize Will and Danny are serious about this. Meanwhile, his mother appears to be stress smoking. Her hand is all wobbles as she holds up the cigarette. “Who’s that supposed to be?”

“My mom,” Danny pipes up. She pauses with the smoking and smiles at Max. “Her name is Wendy.”

Max just looks at Wendy who returns to smoking and all of the sudden it makes sense. “Wait, in danger like from the True Knot?” Danny nods and Max turns around to make sure El knows to come right on over but she’s not even standing in front of the TV sets anymore. In fact, there’s no more El. She looks up and down and around trying to figure out where El went as Diana comes towards them. Already Will’s talking to Danny all over again.

And somehow just like that. . .El is gone.

“Where did you all go?” Diana asks as she comes to a stop. “Who is this friend here?”

“Diana, this is Danny,” Will starts up those introductions again. “He’s also. . .”

Maybe Will says a few more things but Max walks past Diana looking again for El, but there’s no sign of El. Not anywhere. She’s gone without an explanation other than _It’s complicated_. Max ends up interrupting whatever else is being said. “El’s gone.”


	10. Ten (Diana)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny tells Diana he can find El who is missing.

# Ten

**Diana**

The police are useless. 

Exhaustion finds Diana after talking to the police for two straight hours. They’re back at her apartment and it’s been a few hours since Eleven went missing but the police kept telling them over and over again that she can’t be considered _missing_ until many hours later.

“But she went missing on the street! Right in front of us!” snaps Diana for probably the fifth time in the second hour. The police officers each exchange a look. Three of them were in the apartment taking notes, but it looks more like they’re just jotting nonsense to make happy. “Why are you not out there looking for a missing girl? She could be in danger.”

“Ms. Prince, children run away all the time,” one of the officers comments.

“Not this one,” says Diana. It’s probably the twentieth time she tried to argue such a point. Each time it never felt real though because truth is, the girl in fact is a runaway.

“WHY CAN’T YOU DO SOMETHING?!” Maxine barrels into the room. A door snaps with a bit of an explosion. Sitting in a little guest room was her, William, and the two strangers they met on the street, Wendy and Daniel. But now Maxine is storming across the room toward Diana like nothing can stop her.

Diana goes to say something else to the police, to apologize for the girl’s behavior only to realize Maxine isn’t even looking at them but her. The question is for her: _Why can’t you do something?_ She sighs and stands up. “Thank you for your time,” she says to the officers who stand up, too. “I will send a picture of her to the station when I find one.”

The officers left without any common courtesy. Diana turns to face Maxine who appears to be brimming with anger. Her nails dig into her palms as she stares. Her face is redder than her hair and she’s taking such deep breaths while standing there and glaring.

“That was very inappropriate.”

“They’re not gonna do shit though! You know that! They told you! So why aren’t _you_ doing something about El!” Maxine shouts. She bites down on her lower lip. Maybe too angry. Her pause gives time for the other three to enter the main room in the apartment. Diana has no idea how to be a parent like figure. “She probably-She probably ran away! She’s been acting all weird since-since. . .”

“What if I can. . .find her?” The kid, Daniel, speaks up. He darts into the room leaving his mother and William behind but she comes up close after him taking him by the shoulder. “I think-I think I can.”

“No, it is fine.” Diana shakes her head. She makes direct eye contact with Maxine who looks ready to fight. That girl definitely deserves an axe or a hammer to fight with. Channel all that anger into swinging arc motions. “You two should go home.”

“We don’t have a home.” Daniel frowns as he shakes his head real quick.

Wendy gawks at him before snapping her attention to Diana. “No, it’s not like that. We’re on our way to Maine, we’re moving, but he insisted we needed-we needed to stop here.” Wendy tugs at Daniel like they will leave at any moment. “Sorry for bothering you. I am so sorry about this.”

Only Daniel tugs at her sleeve. “NO! We can’t go! We have to find her! I can find her!”

William comes a little closer to Daniel managing a bit of a smile. “He can.”

“How do you know?” retorts Diana.

“He’s. . .” William trails off without much of an explanation even though he’s got both Diana’s, Maxine’s, and Wendy’s full attention.

“I have the shining, ma’am,” Daniel speaks up and Diana can’t help but smile at his little attempt at politeness there. _Ma’am_.

“I do not. . .I do not know what that is. . .” Diana looks at William for answers.

Wendy again tries to make sure Daniel leaves with her. “We’re going, I’m so sorry. I hope you find your daughter, that must be so scary.

Except Daniel won’t budge. He flails his hands at Wendy to get her off him as he exhales real loud not letting her force him out. Daniel takes a few steps away from his mother to take a stronger stance in front of Diana. “I think I can, I don’t know. But I did find Will!” He glances over his shoulder at William. “He can help, too, I think.”

William shakes his head.

“I think he can help, too.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?!” snaps Maxine, her fingernails still digging deep into her palms.

“Maxine! Please watch your language!” Diana brings up before offering a smile for Daniel. “If your mother allows you to stay then you may help.”

Daniel’s eyes sparkle a little as he grin grows so big. “Cool!”


	11. Eleven (Eleven)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El decides to stay with Maxwell Lord, who may or may not be weird.

# Eleven

**Eleven**

It took about an hour to leave DC behind, mainly because of traffic. So many cars sat out on the road waiting to go somewhere. El watched a lot of the city fall back behind her as they entered Virginia heading past half city-like structures, all of which was more city than Hawkins ever could but nothing like the days she spent in Chicago. Soon they passed to such suburban lives before Maxwell’s driver pulls into such a long driveway. Both her and Maxwell sit all the way in the back of a long skinny car. 

El presses her nose to the window as she stares at what looks like a bad attempt at a castle. Maxwell’s home is half stone then a lot of glass. It even has those weird circular tower things that castles’ always have in any book she’s ever paged through.

Maxwell smiles as he looks over at El. “Tomorrow we can figure out the clothing situation pretending how long you plan to stay.”

The car comes to a stop and the driver looks back at them. “Anything else today, Mr. Lord.”

“No thanks, Johnny Boy, we’re good. I’ll give you a call tomorrow if I need you around.”

Both Maxwell and El climb out of the car but El stands outside the front. She tilts her head back staring up at the massive building there. He rests a hand on El’s shoulder which causes her to flinch. She looks at him, jaw slightly ajar and eyes all wide. Maybe this is a bad idea, such a bad idea. She continues to look at Maxwell unsure to where they even went.

“Loudoun County, I can give you the address,” replies Maxwell.

“Right, thanks.”

Maxwell turns to directly face El. He rests both his hands on her shoulders and kneels a bit to make sure they are at eye level with one another. “You do _not_ have to stay. I want to make sure you understand that.”

“Yeah, yeah. . .I do.” El nods a few times almost venturing into all the bad thoughts of her recent past.

“Good, I think this is the beginning of a long friendship.”

“Friendship?” Something about him brings up Mike’s old words to her. _Friends don’t lie._

“We’re family, aren’t we?” Maxwell shows her his 001 tattoo again and El holds up her arm showing off her 011. 

“Family.”

Maxwell grins. “Family doesn’t lie.” He let’s go of her and opens the door up before putting another arm around her shoulders leading her inside. “We’ll make sure you never hurt anybody again.”

“Promise?” The word escapes El. She stands in the first room of his giant house looking at a big staircase that’s a half spiral going up to a second level. It appears to be all black marble or something fancy. Doesn’t really match the outside, but what does she know about buildings? Her and Hopper lived for what seemed so long in the cabin then there was the lab she thought was a home.

“Promise.” Maxwell stretches his hand out, his one pinky waiting for her. “Pinky promise.”

“Um. . .ok. . .” El wraps her pinky around his.

Maxwell steps onto that big staircase. “Now let me show you to the guest room then later I’d like to introduce you to somebody very important.”

“Who?”

“You’ll see, but her name is Carrie and I feel like you two will get along pretty well.”

El closes the door behind and follows Maxwell up those steps. Maybe she’ll need to hope for the best that he meant what he meant when he said _Family doesn’t lie_. There was a time and place Mike said the same then he lied but then again, she’d give up a lot to return to that moment. The thought almost knocks her off balance. Maxwell carries on. He starts to ramble but his words are lost on her because her brain is back in Hawkins not knowing how anybody is taking her disappearance. Hopper has to be furious. Actually, maybe she’d like to be there instead.

As they head down a long hallway decorated with old tapestries depicting random events. None she really looked at. Maxwell steals her full attention. He turns around brushing some hair from her face. Her stomach tightens while looking at him.

“Trust me, everything will be better here.” Maxwell starts to walk again and El nods in agreement as she walks with him towards this so-called guest room. He had a point, it was for the best. It had to be. It’s why she left everybody in the first place. She left a lot of people though for a brother she doesn’t even know. She left an actual brother, that’s the truth about Will Byers and she left Max who was. . .Max. None of this gets her to turn around as she hangs onto Maxwell’s most recent words. _Trust me, everything will be better here._

Maxwell says one last thing before showing her to the guest room. “You don’t need any of them.” It almost feels like something she should second guess, but she doesn’t. Instead, El lets those words sink in even as Maxwell shows off a room to her promising to have somebody stop by to bring her some pajamas before the next day. That’s when they’d figure out clothes. Of course, she could point out she had clothes back at Diana’s place yet the comment pops into her brain but she can’t find it in her to say it. Instead, she stands around nodding the whole time as Maxwell explains a whole lot of things just for her and her stay.


	12. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we learn, Joyce, Hopper, and Billy are following the kids.

# Epilogue

“Have you-Have you seen this person?” Chances are, Joyce would be a whole lot angrier if she hadn’t been through this before. The people of small Hawkins didn’t wanna listen so why would the strangers of Washington DC. After losing another passing stranger she turns to look at Hopper who appears to be distracted as fuck, which is problematic at best. Will and El are missing. Max, too. But it’s Will who first comes to mind then El and then Max. “Hopper!”

He looks over at her busy smoking yet another cigarette. “What? You here to also warn me about lung cancer?”

“NO! I’m here to find our children!” Some reason when Joyce screams this, it gets people’s attention more than her lifting up photos and asking: _Have you seen this person?_

“I know, I know, I know! Give me a moment’s break.” Hopper pauses. “It’s. . .a lot.” He looks elsewhere again because let’s be real, he’s not just smoking and looking off at nothing there. Nope, somewhere across the street he’s 95% sure he sees a familiar face. It’s just somebody he doesn’t know too well. A face he’s seen on phone calls when there’s been too much screaming at this particular household. And across the street, that person hung out staring at him while smoking as well. It’d always been Max’s house. “Just-Just hold on a second. . .”

Before Hopper can chase after the guy across the street, Joyce shouts right back at him. “What if we don’t find them?”

Hopper sighs. He looks at Joyce. She’s right. More important. “We’ll find them.”

“Ok, but what if we _don’t_?”

“We! Will!” Again Hopper turns after the brother of Max’s place but he’s gone and something worse catches his attention. “J-J-Joyce?”

“WHAT?” she snaps.

Hopper guides her to a series of TV sets in a shop window. They cross the road first and get there. It’s not like he has good vision even but that far didn’t matter. Standing on pretty much the other side of the world, he recognized El. There’s El, she’s on TV with some man named Maxwell Lord who introduces her as their sibling. But that’s her. That’s El. It’s Eleven. And while he wants to consider the fact she’s found family, something- _something_ doesn’t sit right. El’s in danger and once again, there’s nothing he can do to protect his newfound daughter.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're still enjoying all of this, please let me know.


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